I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to drying automotive coatings in paint booths and preparation decks for automotive vehicles.
II. Description of Related Art
Many automotive repair shops, oftentimes called collision shops, maintain an automotive paint spray and drying booth. These booths include a plurality of walls which, together, define a chamber of size sufficient to contain an automotive vehicle.
One or more air dispensers are positioned within the interior chamber of the drying booth housing. These air dispensers are typically connected to the shop supply of pressurized air. Consequently, when the pressurized air is connected fluidly to the nozzle, air flow occurs around the automotive vehicle which not only removes paint particles from the booth, but also serves to dry the paint after application on the vehicle.
One disadvantage of utilizing the shop compressed air as the air flow source for the paint spray and drying booth is that such compressed air contains a relatively highly portion of moisture. While such moisture was acceptable, or at least tolerated, for the previously used solvent based paints, with the newer water based automotive paints and finishes, the humid air from the shop compressed air supply unduly prolongs the drying time for the paint applied to the vehicle.
A still further disadvantage of using shop compressed air to create the air flow in the drying booth is that the release of the pressurized shop air through the air nozzles reduces the overall temperature of the air. The relatively cool air further prolongs the drying time for water based automotive paints and other water based finishes.
Alternatively, the air from the compressor may be heated by external heating means in order to heat the air prior to its release inside the paint spray and drying booth. However, the use of external heaters to heat the compressed air results in increased energy consumption and, accordingly, increased operational cost.